Greene County Democrat

Month: March 2018

  • Newswire : ‘Help Wanted’ at the White House as employment opportunities abound with nonstop resignations, firings

    Written By Bruce C.T. Wright, Newsone

    With all the bragging the president has done about how many people in the country have jobs, he may need to pay more attention closer to home as the White House resignation floodgates just can’t seem to stay shut.
    Yet another key White House insider was reportedly set to leave the Trump administration just hours after the president proudly proclaimed that he liked the “conflict” that has routinely led to the departure of dozens of others. The Tuesday afternoon announcement that Gary Cohn, the president’s top economic adviser, has apparently had enough of the madness followed the revelation that another Trump adviser had violated a rule surrounding Alabama’s special election, casting doubt on her future in the White House, too.
    The developments unfolded after the president hosted the Swedish prime minister in the White House and discussed the revolving door when it came to his staff.
    “It’s tough, I like conflict, I like having two people with different points of view – and I certainly have that – and then I make a decision,” Yahoo News reported the president said.
    Famous last words.
    Soon afterward, it was reported that White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway has violated an election law known as the Hatch Act that says, according to CNN, “that with the exception of the president and the vice president, employees of the executive branch cannot engage in any sort of conduct or speech that might be construed as endorsing one party or one candidate over another.”

    She apparently crossed the line pushing the senate candidacy of accused pedophile Roy Moore.
    While the White House was licking those wounds with a steady stream of denials over the announcement by the Office of Special Counsel, Cohn was apparently plotting his escape over a disagreement – or, “conflict” – with the president’s plans to impose a controversial tax on steel and aluminum imports, according to the Associated Press.
    The White House has lost at least 32 key staffers either through firings or resignations. A full list of those people follow, according to MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin. Conway could make it 33, depending on the consequences for her alleged violation.

  • Newswire : Man cleared of murder after 16 years behind bars

    Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

    albertswinton
    Albert Swinton raises his arms in triumph after murder charges are dismissed against him. (Innocence Project photo)

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – A Connecticut judge has dismissed a 1991 murder indictment against Alfred Swinton who spent 16 years in prison until DNA and other evidence cleared him of the crime for which he maintained his innocence from the day police handcuffed him, according to the Innocence Project.
    Swinton was arrested in 1991 for the murder of Carla Terry because he had been in the same bar the night she was murdered. A judge, however, tossed the case because he said there wasn’t enough evidence linking Swinton to the crime.
    Seven years later, police again arrested him after finding a bra in a box in the apartment building where Swinton lived at the time of the murder. A bite mark on the victim’s breast reportedly linked Swinton’s teeth marks to the crime. In 2001, he was convicted for the Terry’s murder and sentenced to 60 years.
    Terry’s sister testified that she gave the bra to her to wear that night, but a 2015 DNA test—known as touch DNA—revealed that neither Swinton nor Carla Terry’s DNA was on the bra. The state laboratory also conducted a second DNA test on the bite mark and the test determined that it didn’t belong to Swinton.
    Dr. Gus Karazulas, the chief forensic odontologist, now admits his testimony wasn’t based on scientific evidence, reported the Innocence Project, which is based in New York City. Swinton, who is 69 and walks with the assistance of a walker, is the 30th person since 2000 whose conviction was vacated in 2017 or dismissed based, at least in part, on bite-mark evidence, the Innocence Project reported.
    Police are still hunting for Terry’s killer and the killer of four other area women.

  • Newswire : Alicia Boler Davis honored with 2018 Black Engineer of the Year Award

    By Freddie Allen (NNPA Newswire Contributor)

    2018beyaawards_001_gm_web120.jpg

     Jose Tomas, Vice President at Lockheed Martin, right, and Linda Goodman, General Motors Board of Directors present Alicia Boler Davis, the executive vice president global manufacturing for General Motors with the 2018 Black Engineer of the Year Award. (General Motors)

    The US Black Engineer & Information Technology (USBE&IT) magazine recently celebrated the history-making career of Alicia Boler Davis, the executive vice president of global manufacturing for General Motors, by honoring her with the 2018 Black Engineer of the Year Award, during the BEYA gala in Washington, D.C. Boler Davis is the sixth woman to receive the award.
    USBE&IT magazine recognizes, Boler Davis “as a global ambassador of goodwill for underrepresented minorities in science and technology, and for women in STEM,” a press release about the award said.
    USBE&IT magazine is published by the Career Communications Group, Inc., which was founded over 30 years ago to promote significant achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics professional careers, according to the group’s website.
    Boler Davis began her GM career in 1994 as a manufacturing engineer at the Midsize/Luxury Car Division in Warren, Mich. She has held many positions of increasing responsibility in manufacturing, engineering and product development, according to her biography.
    Boler Davis was the first African American woman to serve as the plant manager at a GM vehicle manufacturing plant at the Lansing, Mich., Consolidated Operations and Arlington Assembly in Texas. She also simultaneously served in roles as plant manager of the Michigan Orion Assembly and Pontiac Stamping facilities and vehicle chief engineer, and vehicle line director for North America Small Cars, “positions she held until January 2012,” according to the press release about the award.
    The press release also noted that, in February 2012, Boler Davis was appointed U.S. vice president of Customer Experience. Later that year, her role was expanded to vice president of Global Quality and U.S. Customer Experience.
    “Under her leadership, GM improved vehicle quality and redefined customer care and its interaction with customers through social media channels and Customer Engagement Centers,” the press release said. “More recently, Boler Davis was senior vice president, Global Connected Customer Experience where she led the company’s connected customer activities, including infotainment, OnStar, and GM’s Urban Active personal mobility initiatives.”
    In June 2016, Boler Davis was named the executive vice president of General Motors Global Manufacturing.

  • Newswire : South African President endorses transfer of land from Whites to Blacks

    Cyril Ramaphosajpg

    Cyril Ramaphosa

    March 5, 2018 (GIN) – Barely a month into his presidency, Cyril Ramaphosa has taken sides on a hot button issue whose resolution had eluded previous leaders. He vowed to speed up the seizure of land from white owners and turn the properties over to blacks.

    “This original sin that was committed when our country was colonized must be resolved in a way that will take South Africa forward,” he declared.

    The resolution calling for expropriation without compensation was introduced by the self-described radical and militant Economic Freedom Front, and passed 241 votes in agreement, and 83 votes against.

    Sinawo Thambo, provincial chairperson of the group’s Student Command in the Western Cape, exuberantly described the vote in an article titled “Land Expropriation a Victory for Africa.”

    “Land dispossession in South Africa, although marred by barbaric violence, was also a legislated policy,” he wrote. “The oppression of exploitation of the black majority was rationalized under a parliamentary and judicial framework. This means it is engrained in history and in policy that perpetuates the dire conditions the black majority exists in in this country.

    “Central to the (newly-passed) resolution is the agreement not to compensate when expropriating land,” he continued, because “it is unreasonable to expect compensation for land theft and the criminal process of colonialism. It would be justifying the rational of dispossession as an acceptable fact and rewarding theft. It simply should not be done and the debates in Parliament expressed that succinctly.”

    Other measures proposed by the new president were announced in his State of the Nation address.

    Among the initiatives planned to jumpstart the economy are: a jobs summit, an investment conference, and compulsory local procurement in major economic sectors with a focus on youth empowerment.

    His stand on land reform was cautious and measured: “We are determined that expropriation without compensation be implemented in a way that increases agricultural production, improves food security and ensure that the land is returned to those from whom it was taken under colonialism and apartheid.

    ”Government will undertake a process of consultation to determine the modalities of the implementation of this resolution,” he told the Assembly.

    Ramaphosa rejected the torrent of criticisms appearing in national and international media. There will be “no smash-and-grab of land in our country”, he responded. “That we will not allow. There is no need for anyone to panic and beat the drums of war,” adding that the “issue would be solved without any problems”.

    Everyone will have an opportunity, regardless of their race, birthplace or the wealth of their parents, he said, and repeated it in Afrikaans.